(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photos by Henk Seppen)
 Wim Martinus new Head Coach of Euro Stars
Nederlands
...Wim Martinus talks with pitcher David Bergman...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
 CAPELLE a/d IJSSEL (Neth.) -
Wim Martinus is the new Head Coach of Euro Stars.
The club has announced and thus confirmed that the veteran baseball-coach will lead the team next season in the second highest division ('Overgangsklasse').
Coming season, the goal is to finish higher in the ranking than this year.
The ultimate goal for the team of course is to promote to the big league in the future.
Martinus' Assistant Coach will be announced shortly.
This year, Euro Stars was led by Wendell Hato and finished in sixth place in the first half of the 'Overgangsklasse' with a 9-9 record.
The team finished only two points (one game) ahead of Quick Amersfoort to qualify for the 6-team Promotion Pool in the second half of the season.
In that pool, Euro Stars shared fifth place with Double Stars Heiloo, finishing with a 5-15 record.
Martinus, nicknamed 'Fox', brings a lot of experience with him to Euro Stars, as he not only has coached at the club-level for several years now, he also is a member of the coachingstaff of the Netherlands National Baseball Team.
The last two seasons, Martinus was the Head Coach of Corendon Kinheim.
With that Haarlem-based team, he reached the Holland Series this year, but lost the best-of-seven final to Curaçao Neptunus, 4-1.
It was at Neptunus where Martinus started his impressive career.
He made his debut as a player in the Dutch big league in 1984, playing for Neptunus.
There, he played in more than 500 games to become one of the few players that played their entire big league-career and 500 or more games for one club.
Amongst that small group are players like Bart Volkerijk (ADO), Jurjan Koenen (HCAW), Ronald Stoovelaar (Amsterdam Pirates) and Dè Flanegin (Hoofddorp Pioniers).
Martinus retired as a player after the 2003 season.
Hereafter, in 2004, he made his coaching debut and was the Head Coach of Tridents, which then was the 'second' team of Neptunus.
...Wim Martinus and pitcher Rick van den Hurk...
...at the 2009 World Baseball Classic...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
A year later, in 2005, Martinus made his coaching debut in the Dutch big league when he was named Head Coach of Sparta-Feyenoord.
Martinus led the Rotterdam-squad for two seasons, reaching the Play-Offs in his first and ending in seventh place in his second.
He then was the Head Coach of ADO in 2007, finishing in sixth place with the team from The Hague.
Hereafter, Wim Martinus was the 3B Coach of Neptunus for five seasons (2008-2012).
He then had the same position in the coachingstaff of Kinheim in the 2013 season, before being named the Head Coach of the team in October of that year.
Last year, he reached the Play-Offs with Kinheim, but then was eliminated.
This year, the team again qualified for the Play-Offs, then became a surprise finalist.
Kinheim then lost the Holland Series to Neptunus.
Since November 2006, Martinus also is a member of the coachingstaff of the Netherlands National Baseball Team.
With the Orange squad, he participated in all major events since then, including the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (China), winning the World Championship in 2011 in Panama and reaching the semi-final of the World Baseball Classic in 2013.
In the Dutch coachingstaff, he served as 3B Coach, 1B Coach, Pitching Coach and most recently as Bullpen Coach.
In October, towards the end of the transfer-period, Euro Stars already announced that ten new players had joined the team for next season.
They are pitcher Martijn Cazemier, pitcher Sebastiaan van de Koppel, infielder Ronald van Vugt, outfielder Wendly Wawoe (all Tridents), pitcher Evan Simons, infielder Tim Roodenburg, outfielder Jules Peters, outfielder Kilian Jansen (all The Hawks), pitcher Danny Stolk (Quick Amersfoort) and infielder Kevin Verroen (Zwijndrecht).
Several players on the current roster of Euro Stars have played in the big league.
Tim Roodenburg has played at the highest level since 2008 for Sparta-Feyenoord, Neptunus and The Hawks.
In 2014, he played for DSS, which then promoted to the big league.
Evan Simons and Jules Peters played in the big league for The Hawks in the past two seasons, while Kilian Jansen made his big league-debut this year.
Three other newcomers have played in a few big league-games in the past years, being Sebastiaan van de Koppel, Danny Stolk and Wendly Wawoe.
Four other players, who already were on the Euro Stars-roster in the last two seasons, also have big league-experience.
They are Erwin Bonis (ADO, Sparta-Feyenoord, The Hawks), Allard Lammerts van Bueren (Sparta-Feyenoord, The Hawks), Max Bijster (Sparta-Feyenoord) and Friso Arkenbout (Neptunus, The Hawks).
Bijster came to Euro Stars after the 2011 season when he played in the big league for Sparta-Feyenoord.
Arkenbout, Bonis and Lammerts van Bueren came to the club after having played in the big league for The Hawks in 2013.
(December 14)
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